CITYGROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE

Week 7 -(Mark 2:18-22) #CityGroupsTally Week of February 26th, 2017

REMINDERS for leaders:

Here’s a few reminders before you get going: • ! VIDEO: Each week we will have a video for you to show at your group meeting. • Find an Apprentice or Co-Leader. Be ready to: Replace Yourself & Multiply. My challenge for EVERY group leader is to find someone you can teach about leading a group. Ever since Jesus, the gospel has spread and churches have grown by individuals teaching others what they know. This will also free you up as you hand away responsibility. • Pray, Pray, Pray!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. Move to 9am Service: God is growing City Church and in order to make more room for people on Sunday mornings we are asking folks to consider moving to the 9am service if possible.

2. Refugee Rides Needed: In our ongoing effort to serve refugees in our city, we are in need of volunteers to help provide rides to their jobs and on Sunday mornings to City Church. Contact: [email protected] for more info.

3. Mark Online Devo’s: Have everyone in your group pull out their phones and show them how to find the City Church Mark Devo’s on our website; as a great resource for their personal growth. (Found under the “Grow” tab on our website or www.citychurchtallahassee.com/mark

BIG IDEA(s):

Ever seen a company try to rebrand themselves but it’s the same old thing? Old wineskins. Jesus was brining something new that could not be contained by an outdated Jewish sacrificial system. It would be like trying to strap a jet engine on wheelchair! This week we will focus on how the newness of Christ affects our everyday lives and how it changes the way we practice spiritual disciplines like fasting. PRAY: Ask the Lord to lead your group meeting, speak through the Scriptures and guide conversations.

READ: Mark 2:18-22

HEAD (20 minutes)

! WATCH THIS WEEK’S VIDEO 1) What sort of people come to mind when you think of folks who fast regularly? (Health nuts? Strange people? John the Baptist types? Jews or Muslims, Legalists? Jesus? Etc.)

2) Explain why Jesus’ disciples were partying rather than fasting? (18-19) • Is it ok for Christians to fast today? Why? (vs. 20) (Yes, but differently than the Pharisees) • How should our fasting look different than the Pharisees? (Matt. 6:16-18) (Pharisees fasted to look super spiritual or to check off their religious duty. Christians fasting is not about earning favor with God but instead about focusing our souls on knowing God and growing in godliness.) • What are some ways fasting might help you in your relationship with God? (Strengthens prayer, helps us recognize God’s guidance, expresses grief, is a defense against spiritual attack & temptation, expresses repentance & humility, expresses love & worship to God. – from Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by D. Whitney)

3) What was the significance of Jesus calling Himself the Bridegroom? (vs 19)

4) Explain the main point Jesus was making regarding the new wine and un-shrunk cloth? (Vs. 21-22) (The old system can’t contain Jesus! Both analogies represent the new reality that God’s Kingdom has come and the new way of salvation through faith in Jesus is not compatible with old sacrificial system.) • What are reasons Jesus and the Gospel are incompatible with any other savior or belief system? • How might these teachings of Jesus apply to us today? (1. We are free in Christ, not bound by OT sacrificial system, religious rituals or traditions. 2. We cannot just patch Jesus on to parts of our life or sprinkle a little Jesus into our worldviews. He redefines both.)

HEART: (15 minutes) 1) In what ways have you been guilty of trying to add/patch Jesus into your life?

2) What are some subtle ways you might be basing your relationship with God on your good works or religious performance (even fasting)? How will you overcome it?

HANDS (15 Minutes): 1) Are you willing to fast in some way as the Holy Spirit directs you? Why or why not? (Warning: Consider consulting your doctor first and be aware of your motives for fasting.)

2) What are some old wineskins you will need to throw away in order to live in the newness of Christ this week? (2 Cor. 5:17) Pray: Take a few moments to share prayer requests and pray for one another and your lost friends. Commentary: Mark 2:18-22 (For more insight into each verse & for hard questions)

2:18–19. Fasting was another of the Pharisees’ interpretations of the law that the common people (“sinners”) did not follow. Jewish tradition demanded a fast once a year: on the day of Atonement. For the stricter Jews, however, fasting was practiced much more frequently. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. These were generally twelve-hour fasts, from sunup to sundown. The Pharisees also made sure that people knew how spiritual they were by showing everyone they were fasting (Matt. 6:16–18).

Some people asked Jesus why Jesus’ disciples did not fast. We do not know if this was an honest question or an implied accusation of unrighteousness. In reply, Jesus used an analogy common to the time—the bridal party. Since engagements were often long (in some cases years), the actual wedding was a time of feasting and great joy. The wedding celebration also symbolized the age of salvation. This verse also serves as a messianic reference with Christ as the bridegroom.

2:20-22. This is the first indication in Mark that Jesus was fully aware of his mission. Jesus’ prediction here introduces a somber note that has been missing up to now in Mark’s account of miracles and controversies. It reminds us that joy and suffering are often two different sides of the same coin. Again, Jesus used analogies that the Jews of that day would have been familiar with. In sewing, if a piece of unshrunk cloth were used to patch an old garment, the patch would shrink when it was washed, making a worse tear of the cloth. New wine needs to be put in flexible skins so the skin has room to expand as it ferments. If it is put into an old, brittle skin, it will burst the skin. Jesus was making the point that the new order and the old order (symbolized either by the Pharisees or John the Baptist) are incompatible. Jesus’ claim is that something new is happening. Verse 18 brought up John the Baptist and his disciples, who taught the need for repentance because the kingdom of God was at hand.

Jesus claimed that something new was happening, something incompatible with even John the Baptist. It was a message of salvation; and this echoed Jesus’ proclamation of his mission in Luke 4:18–19. In these verses, Jesus did not finish the Isaiah quote, but stopped it here: “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Something new was happening—and old, brittle wineskins would not be able to contain it. It is interesting to note that in each case something is destroyed. God does not just mend our hearts; he gives us brand new ones. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). He gives us a new nature, and we are new creatures in Christ. To try to put this kind of life into old, legalistic systems is to destroy the new life. This teaching anticipates Paul’s teaching that Christianity is not an extension of Judaism. Judaism cannot contain it. Jewish laws are not binding upon Christians. Paul took up this topic with enthusiasm in Galatians. The old order regulated behavior with rules; the new order regulates by relationship. Jesus did not come to reform Judaism, as the prophets before him had. He came to introduce a new entity, the church.

What’s new about fasting for Christians? “ What's new about the fasting is that it rests on all this finished work of the Bridegroom. The yearning that we feel for revival or awakening or deliverance from corruption is not merely longing and aching. The first fruits of what we long for have already come... It is not merely future.

We have tasted the powers of the age to come, and our new fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not tasted, but because the new wine of Christ's presence is so real and so satisfying. The newness of our fasting is this: its intensity comes not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ's presence, but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives. We must have all he promised. And as much now as possible. “ –John Piper